Johnny Marr's great live album

Legendary guitarist Johnny Marr thinks his first solo material sounds brilliant live thanks to his innovative approach to his new album.

Johnny Marr's solo album is made of ''12 tracks that sound good live.''

The legendary guitarist has made his first solo album, 'The Messenger', after being in a number of other bands - including The Smiths, The Pretenders and Electronic - but he has aimed to make it the opposite of how many people approach solo records.

Speaking in an interview with BBC 6Music, he said: ''When somebody has a solo record when they've made records for a long time, there's a kind of insinuation that it affords you the freedom to be moody or experimental and go off the beaten track, but it appears I've done the opposite, in that its all pretty uptempo and 12 tracks that sound good live.

''I've gone back to the sort of energy, trying to capture the energy I had from my influences that I had growing up in Manchester.''

The record will be preceded by a single, also called 'The Messenger', which Johnny, 49, said was a track which came about very easily and quickly.

He added: ''It's one of those songs that kind of came out very easily, and all songwriters will tell you they either turn out to be really food, or just not. In the case of the Messenger, I was really pleased wit hit, it kind of just happened.''